Wall Street's Cash Bonus Pool Hits $20 Billion

Wall Street cash bonuses for 2012 are expected to climb 8% from a year earlier. WSJ's Colin Barr reports on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... the the ... Wall Street's twenty twelve bonus pool is expected to hit ... twenty ... million dollars ... was itself with all the will Street tunnel but he added that on all sides ... how does a lot of money offered offer you the son of the meantime your caliber that there's a lot of money coming twenty oh you ... silly but we've we've been hearing that you know ... hey was going to be ... water rights to the Wall Street and then you get my happened to this twenty TV and Dollar meaning ... note that a relative term so it's not as crazy ... it's a was a few years ago Brooklyn at me and it's on from last year right ... well right we don't know we don't know what for I mean it's it's up in terms of last year's eighteen ... minute half billions into its twenty billion ... in terms of headcounts with the average number isn't all those things mean last year the average salary was three and sixty ... two thousand dollars the point that the average compensation ... the securities industry ... so ... no we don't come ... I'm pose the biggest man headcount reduction and will be more models here when we know that now has a little tricky as this is just the cash portion of total black comes from fry and he is both readings that with that but if you explain on what will the financial firms under pressure to the firm or pay because on some bad things happen in two thousandseven two thousandeight Simpson banks got into trouble ... in a bench we the people in the conclusion that sort of this week as traders ... had an incentive to make these cute that since the bets went well when they got paid to God Lord war-torn bruises ... and he bets one bad bank will open in the taxpayers and they'll now ... that's the sort of the of the idea of what if ... odds heads I win tails you lose the right and that I'm in a double or will this also doesn't want to write paint fluctuations as I think that ... I'm supposed we've been requesting it does is just another factor that makes all talk about all this more complicated because we do have you know you have deferrals from past years people getting the appeal court order there are a pair for your ... answer presumably pot of what they get this year would be in awe it's like the economist ran track and I get this money will take on about why ... I'm put aside why he is right and and that awesome clawback KY turns out people doing that nasty things and stuff like that ... in two thousand twelve was a better year for these for these firms in general been opened in two thousand level is two thousand eleven ended with everyone wondering if if all these things really got business again ... not that all the goods so one thing say we've been hearing about a new thing coming as its head count ... reduction of banks an hour I fall for this yet this doesn't bode well that that that a group of the city because we rely on income tax revenues in the street from Wall Street none will try to think of trend to think over time that but that numbers can continue to be sort of flat to down but I think that there's this huge cost pressure on the banks ... JPMorgan today ... um saying that built the seventeen thousand jobs over two years and that there is no one knew that something fell seventeen dollars and a lot of jobs in JPMorgan's is one of the healthiest it's been one of the banks that dumbass a feast or benefited from the financial crisis to certain extent begun to buy a bunch of stuff really cheap ... and that made much bigger and now they're coming for the fact that these can can afford ... the oldest people ... want and so that's that's going to continue to see this debate this over race for these guys to cut costs now they fall through gotten much bigger and they need to slim down so what this is this not the last event that don't ... belong here and and when we have more of it will ask it that thank my coupon off all the Wall Street John all